Mile 145 Tombigbee River

 We were up before the sun this morning. There is an old saying, “Red in the Morning, Sailors take warning”.  But the day was bright and mostly clear.

Here there is fog on the water as we rushed to get into the lock...7 boats...all leaving about the same time.

In the lock with three boats and waiting for three more.

Our chart told us there was a railroad bridge ahead with 12 ft clearance...we hoped the bridge tender would be there to raise it for us but when we rounded a bend we saw that it was already up. There is much barge traffic on this part of the river and the tugs are high so they probably left it up for them.

No pictures of tows tonight as we figured you had seen enough but I will tell you one name.   If you didn't know we were in the south this name gives it away...it was proudly printed on the tug...... “Bobby Joe James”!

A Fun Water slide into the River.

We knew down river there were few anchorages...places like coves off the river and there is not much room in them.   Actually, only one anchorage is listed for our travel today, Bashi Creek . The other boats all passed us and we were hoping they would go on to Charlie's Fish Camp..the only dock before Mobile.  However, some of them are in the Bashi Creek anchorage and it is full so we have anchored in the river near the bank and off the channel.

We felt since anchoring in the MS River we could anchor anywhere.  But I have again learned new things! The current in the MS River kept us pointing the same way... this river doesn't have that strong current so we put down a stern anchor after the main anchor was down.

To do this Walter let the dinghy down. Here he is putting in the drain plug.

Here the stern anchor is in the dinghy along with the anchor rode which, in this case, is a about 20 ft of chain and a lot of rope.

Walter is lowering the anchor.

Anchor rode secured on cleat on sun deck.

Then the Captain was off to play awhile in the last few minutes of sunlight.

A view of our anchorage.

 And here is a distant view to show you where we are...close to the bank....plenty water below us.

We purposely got close to the shore on a straight part of the river so approaching tows from either direction can clearly see us.  And already tonight we have been passed by a tow.....we wondered why the bank across from us was so lit up in this pitch black darkness!   Turned out to be a tow coming....he swung his great light our direction briefly and continued down the river.  Earlier, before dark,  a barge passed us and the Captain called him on the radio to ask if we were out of his way enough.  He said we were.

BUT then, after dinner the Captain noticed we had moved a lot! He checked the stern anchor and it was loose so in the BLACKness he got into the dinghy (life jacket on this time) and pulled the stern anchor and reset it...having me help by letting out the rode. This was one time I wish I had married a talkative man!  I kept asking what he was doing and where he was... I could barely see the white dinghy in the dark and no Captain was visible!..... finally I yelled, “TALK TO ME!” He quietly said, “Pull the rode in”.  I did and we are back in the boat now.... I wonder if we will sleep tonight?   Drag Queen (anchor alarm) is set and has the habit of going off at 3a.m but that is a good thing....wait!.... it just went off...uh oh!  Should be an interesting night!